The present invention relates to a process for providing a reconstituted tobacco material, and more particularly to a reconstituted tobacco material which can be used as a substrate material especially useful in making smoking articles.
Cigarettes and other smoking articles have a substantially cylindrical rod shaped structure and includes a charge of tobacco material surrounded by a wrapper, such as paper, thereby forming a so-called "tobacco rod." It has become desirable to manufacture a cigarette having a cylindrical filter aligned in an end-to-end relationship with the tobacco rod. Typically, a filter includes cellulose acetate circumscribed by plug wrap, and is attached to the tobacco rod using a circumscribing tipping material. See Baker, Prog. Ener. Combust. Sci., 7:135-153 (1981). Typical cigarettes include blends of various tobaccos, such as the flue-cured, Burley, Maryland, and Oriental tobaccos. Cigarette blends also can include certain amounts of processed and reconstituted tobacco materials. Reconstituted tobacco materials often are manufactured from tobacco stems, dust, and scrap using papermaking processes. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,962,774 to Thomasson et al.; 4,987,906 to Young et al.; and 4,421,126 to Gellatly.
Other cigarette-like smoking articles have also been proposed. Many such cigarette-like smoking articles are based on the generation of an aerosol or vapor. Smoking articles of this type, as well as materials, methods and/or apparatus useful therein and/or for preparing such cigarettes are described, for example, in the following U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,714,082 to Banerjee et al., 4,732,168 to Resce; 4,756,318 to Clearman et al.; 4,782,644 to Haarer et al.; 4,793,365 to Sensabaugh et al.; 4,802,568 to Haarer et al.; 4,807,809 to Pryor et al.; 4,827,950 to Banerjee et al.; 4,858,630 to Banerjee et al.; 4,870,748 to Hensgen et al.; 4,881,556 to Clearman et al.; 4,893,637 to Hancock et al.; 4,893,639 to White; 4,903,714 to Barnes et al.; 4,917,128 to Clearman et al.; 4,928,714 to Shannon; 4,938,238 to Barnes et al.; 4,989,619 to Clearman et al.; 5,027,836 to Shannon et al.; 5,027,839 to Clearman et al.; 5,042,509 to Banerjee et al.; 5,052,413 to Baker et al.; 5,060,666 to Clearman et al.; 5,065,776 to Lawson et al.; 5,067,499 to Banerjee et al.; 5,076,292 to Baker et al.; 5,099,861 to Clearman et al.; 5,101,839 to Jakob et al.; 5,105,831 to Banerjee et al.; 5,105,837 to Barnes et al.; and 5,119,837 to Banerjee et al.; 5,183,062 to Clearman et al.; and 5,203,355 to Clearman, et al., as well as in the monograph entitled Chemical and Biological Studies of New Cigarette Prototypes That Heat Instead of Burn Tobacco, R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, 1988 (hereinafter "RJR Monograph"). These cigarettes are capable of providing the smoker with the pleasure of smoking (e.g., smoking taste, feel, satisfaction, and the like). Such smoking articles typically provide low yields of visible sidestream smoke as well as low yields of FTC tar when smoked.
The smoking articles described in the aforesaid patents and/or publications generally employ a combustible fuel element for heat generation and an aerosol generating means, positioned physically separate from, and typically in a heat exchange relationship with the fuel element. Many of these aerosol generating means employ a substrate or carrier for one or more aerosol precursor materials, e.g., polyhydric alcohols, such as glycerin. The aerosol precursor materials are volatilized by the heat from the burning fuel element and upon cooling form an aerosol. Normally, the fuel elements of such smoking articles are circumscribed by an insulating jacket. The carrier or substrate can be a reconstituted tobacco material.
Most of these smoking articles, however, have never achieved any commercial success. It is believed that the absence of such smoking articles from the marketplace is in part due to insufficient aerosol generation, both initially and over the life of the smoking article, along with other negative characteristics such as poor taste, off-taste due to the thermal degradation of the aerosol-former, the presence of pyrolysis products, sidestream smoke, and unsightly appearance. Moreover, the aerosol precursor material is typically applied only to the surface of the smokable material or substrate. This surface treatment, however, results in a tacky surface which often slows down processing.
It would be desirable to provide a reconstituted tobacco material useful in cigarettes and other smoking articles, and more particularly a reconstituted tobacco material incorporating a high level, by weight, of an aerosol precursor material therein.